Brazil's Petrobras approves sale of $1 bln of local bonds

RIO DE JANEIRO May 18 (Reuters) - The board of Brazil's
state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA approved
the sale of more than 3 billion reais ($997 million) of bonds in
local currency in the Brazilian market, the company said in a
securities filing late Friday.

The authorization also allows Petrobras, as the company is
commonly known, to raise the sale by as much as 35 percent with
additional bonds equivalent to 20 percent and 15 percent of the
original 3-billion-real offer.

If all the debt is sold, the total sale will rise to 4.05
billion reais ($1.35 billion). The company did not say how long
Petrobras will have to repay investors in the bonds or what
interest it intends to pay.

Petrobras, the world's most indebted major oil company, is
looking for new sources of capital to repay maturing debt and
finance one of the world's largest oil-output expansion plans.

A corruption scandal, poor planning, falling oil prices and
delays bringing on planned new output have crimped the company's
access to cash and made raising new money more expensive and
difficult.

Petrobras said the company will review market conditions
during 2015 to decide if it will sell the authorized debt or
not.